Timmys Tidbits – Season Finale

Firstly apologies for the lack of ‘bits’. I got caught up with a few other things and fell behind, so I thought what better way to end the season than to culminate a few memories from the season, particularly of the last few races. So lets get into it!

SWIM: I could go on about this topic. One of my stand out memories here was in the Enduro race I believe. There was some confusion as to which point we swum from, the rocks or more alongside the yacht club (thus a shorter swim). Then it happened. Darryl went full aquaman, jugular vein spasming, demanding we started the swim from the rocks. I know Darryl likes his swimming, however I didn’t know here was prepared to fight the minions for it. Everyone basically crapped themselves and ran up the beach to the rocks. Good thing we had wetsuits on, I think I pee’d myself. Another glorious memory, fortunately of which I did not race, was race 9. This was the sprint distance 750/20/5. It was a bit tough to organise the swim in short notice to feature within the two groins at doddis, so I think it was a case of ‘chuck the buoy here, that’ll do’. The swim ended up just over 1km I believe. But seeing what happened last time the swim was questioned, I can say I was fine with that. In fact, fresh are the memories of ‘Hulk Harris’ from the Enduro, I would have swum an ironman and come out smiling from fear. Now over the course of the season, it was good to see some swimmers improve. Two of the biggest improvers were Ken Isbister and Rebecca Millward. Both have been putting a lot of work into the swims and it paid off. Joel Lewis also has a phenomenal swim in his arsenal. Karl Winrow also upped his swim game through the year, culminating in an interesting Busselton around the jetty swim. That day had perfect swimming conditions, said no one ever.

BIKE: Its all about the bike. The brothers Clark, Alan and Aidan had some interesting duels here. Clark junior was becoming a bit of a stud as the year progressed. Not sure how he feels about his first Busselton 70.3. I’m sure (like some others) he enjoyed it, but has sworn long course is for girlie men, and real men do sprint races. And has vowed to never race a 70.3 again. Until next May. Nat Stevenson gained some momentum as the year went on, returning to some great form. Her bike is a real weapon. Likewise Jenny Sullivan built up a great year becoming strong in all disciplines. Susan Androvich also is known as a strong biker. Rebecca Wright also has a very strong cycling leg. Bruce Barrington, my long course nemesis, has had a bloody good season. Rusty Harris, well. All I can say is a can’t wait for fat, unfit Rusty to come back. I missed that guy. Affable fellow he was. Ryan Craig developed his bike this year, which sucked. He is in my age group. I wasn’t really close to him anyway, but his new found bike speed put him well out of reach. Now that he has 2 kids, let’s hope Julie cracks the whip on his fatherly duties so he has no time to train for next season. He can join the ‘Offseason Rusty Club’. Matty Mckay, Mark Dawson. Pfffft, fast. I do remember one race where Daws must have been sandbagging it for a favourable handicap race time, in which he was behind me on the bike. In fact he was behind me the whole race except the last 500 meters. While I was choking on a lung trying to speed up in the last run section, he ran past me, smiled, nose breathing, and slapped my bum. You know those people who run 3:30 pace as a warm up. Yeh. That’s Daws. He later said he thought about letting me finishing ahead of me. But changed his mind. Bitch. I wish I had that much power over who I finish above. Also this year, no accidents! At least in a race….

RUN: The fleet of foot who finish races strongly have a huge advantage. I liken them to hunters, running down their pray. Sammy Benn has long been in this category, hence her nickname of Santas Little Helper (a Simpsons reference). In fact, since now owning a greyhound, I have learnt they are in fact very lazy dogs who blow up after about 500 meters and need a lie down. For the whole day. I’ll have to ask James if Sam is similar after a training session. Sharon Ford has improved all year and has turned into a handy little runner. Good to see her get to the start line of Busso as well this year. Not without another accident of course, but whenever Sharon registers for Busso, she must know that a bike accident will precede the race. ‘Rego for Busso, check! Kiss the pavement, check! Ok, I’m ready’. She won’t admit it, but Jo Kelly-Wilson can run too. I accidently blew a snot rocket on Jo during a race once on the run. She hasn’t let me forget about it. Probably fair enough. Roz Thompson, who still prefers riding her road bike to tri bike in races (!!!), also tends to come home strong. Colin Luff and Dave Whitely came into some form late into the season with the run. These oldies take their time. Anthony Powe owns the run. I know people look over their shoulders on the run because they know ‘Pow Pow’ is on the move. Like a cheetah eyeing a plump wildebeest, he is coming and all you can do is hold on for as long as possible. Russel Harris is a bloody good runner too, it’s his best leg. Again, we welcome fat rusty back with open arms anytime he wants to make an appearance. Hamish, more known as an uberfish, picked up his run as the season progressed. In fact 1 week after Ironman South Africa, he hit the podium in a Sunsmart series sprint triathlon. Who even does that?! Here is where I would mention Brett Johnson as well. His run has long dominated, but I perhaps should have mentioned him earlier in the swim section, since he came into the season with a much faster swim and bike behind him. I wonder if this man gets bored winning. It’s a nice problem to have. I complain to the wife all the time that our club is a cesspool for the faster athletes. If you’re fast, Mandurah tri club is where you should be. Frankly, it’s deflating.

Now I could go on and mention the podiums at Busselton 70.3, the pb’s, the podiums at the Sunsmart tri series etc over the course of the season. But I won’t, simply because as I said, our club is damn fast and the list would be long. I will say congratulations though, to all who achieved new heights, whether that be podiums or pb’s.

So, on to our wind up. I don’t want any of you to train until 1 week before race 1 2017. You must all get fat and lazy. Doctors order. And that includes you too Doc.